Press conference held the day before the 15th anniversary of the Observer's publication of the March 2, 2003 story “US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war” -- based on a leak by GCHQ linguist and analyst Katharine Gun - revealing the US National Security Agency's UN surveillance memo that aimed to grease the way for the Iraq invasion.

Fri 2 March 2018

18:00 – 20:00 GMT

Birkbeck, University of London

Malet Street, London, WC1A 7HX, United Kingdom

15 years ago, Katharine Gun leaked a GCHQ memo revealing US spying operations on UN security council members. This simple act of bravery helped to galvanise the mass movement of opposition to the Iraq War. It also served as a telling reminder of the essential role played by the press in speaking truth to power and upholding the fabric of democratic life. A generation on, the legacy of that leak is writ large in a resurgent politics of resistance to the warfare and surveillance state on both sides of the Atlantic. This unique event brings together a panel, including Katharine herself, to discuss the lessons of that leak, and ask: What can and should we be doing - journalists, scholars, activists, citizens, policymakers - to do justice to the immeasurable public service performed by whistleblowers?

Our recent "Stand Up for Truth" whirlwind speaking tour through London, Oslo (see here and here), Stockholm and Berlin last week as well as webinars, visual presentations and speaking events in U.S. cities was exhausting but quite successful. Truth has always been a difficult and often frustrating business, especially when that old story line tends to repeat of the naked Emperor continuing to ignorantly march forward, even after the little boy has yelled the truth. But someone has to do it!

William Binney spent more than 30 years at the National Security Agency designing programs that enabled mass surveillance of foreign terrorists.

Weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Binney retired in disgust when he saw the agency using that technology to spy on every American.

Since then, he has agitated for reining in unconstitutional invasions of privacy. At first he worked behind the scenes. Binney decided to go public after his actions resulted not in reform but retaliation, including being accosted at gunpoint by an FBI agent raiding his Maryland house. He began telling his story to journalists in 2011, two years before the stunning revelations of NSA contractor Edward Snowden.